The new DBS GT Zagato and DB4 GT Zagato Continuation come as a pair

For £6m plus taxes (so £7.2m in the UK), 19 people around the world get not just the car shown here but a freshly-minted continuation version of the Aston DB4 GT Zagato, Britain’s famous “Ferrari GTO beater” from the 1960s and today one of the world’s most valuable and covetable cars.

The formidable then-and-now pairing has been put together to mark Zagato’s centenary, in Aston’s words by “paying tribute to an icon of the past and creating a classic of the future”. The 19 buyers – reflecting the number of DB4 GT Zs made in period – can only buy the cars as the DBZ Centenary Collection pair, with neither available individually.

More’s the pity, we say, for Zagato’s version of the modern-day DBS Superleggera is shaping up to be a stunner. While we all know what its DB4 ancestor looks like, this is the first glimpse so far of Zagato’s take on the modern car.

Already a handsome machine, as well as Aston’s most powerful production model, the DBS takes on a muscular clarity in Zagato’s hands. Sharp-edged and with no hard lines above the shoulder line, Aston says the voluptuous surfacing was inspired by the DB4 GT Zagato.

It wouldn’t be a Zagato Aston Martin if it didn’t have the double bubble roof and the DBS GT Z doesn’t disappoint, with a new interpretation of the signature Zagato design cue. The twin roof bulges extend from top of windscreen all the way along the roof and down the back of the car in one seamless flow right to the car’s rearmost tip. The drawings don’t show it clearly, but the design precludes a conventional rear screen.

The double bubble theme is also used on the bonnet, as featured on the original Aston Martin Zagato, while the grille promises to be something truly special, as all Zagato grilles are.

“In the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation we have one of the world’s most beautiful and instantly recognisable pieces of car design. Creating a car fit to stand alongside it was always going to be a formidable challenge,” said Aston design chief Marek Reichman. “Sensational-looking and extremely rare, it is the modern incarnation of a timeless icon.”

The DBS GT Zagato is to be built at Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters in contrast to the DB4 Continuation which for a while now has been hand-made in Aston’s traditional home in Newport Pagnell. First deliveries of the modern Zagato incarnation are not expected until late 2020.